Warner Brothers Want Hangover Tattoo Suit Dismissed

Movie bosses behind The Hangover: Part II are asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit from a tattoo artist who alleges his design was copied in the comedy. S. Victor Whitmill, the artist who created, inked and copyrighted Mike Tyson's...

Movie bosses behind The Hangover: Part II are asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit from a tattoo artist who alleges his design was copied in the comedy.

S. Victor Whitmill, the artist who created, inked and copyrighted Mike Tyson's facial tattoo, is suing Warner Brothers over claims the boxer's body art was replicated without his permission.

But chiefs at the Warner Brothers film studio insist Whitmill's copyright infringement lawsuit and request for an injunction to halt the movie's impending release should be thrown out.

The company's legal brief reads, "The very ';copyrightability' of tattoos is a novel issue. There is no legal precedent for the Plaintiff's radical claim that he is entitled, under the Copyright Act, to control the use of a tattoo that he created on the face of another human being."

Warner Brothers claim the ban should not be enforced, citing the fair use of parody, the tattoo's ubiquitous nature, and the fact that Tyson himself appears in the film.

An official decision is expected later this week ahead of the planned release of The Hangover: Part II on May 26.

Update: The movie will be released as scheduled. The lawsuit has been thrown out by the courts.

Are you excited for The Hangover: Part II? What do you think of the tattoo lawsuit?